St. Paul Home Prices Inch Closer to Pre-Recession Levels

With the end of 2016 fast-approaching, many real estate industry experts are already looking ahead to next year, trying to get a jump on how the local Twin Cities real estate market might fare as we kick off what's projected to be another strong year in 2017.

Given we still have a full month ahead of us, though, there’s still plenty of time to analyze what’s currently happening around the marketplace, and specifically here in St. Paul. According to countless articles, publications, and market statistics, it might seem that the local St. Paul housing market has apparently made a full recovery, reaching a similar level to what we saw all the way back prior to the recession, which of course brought home prices and home values in the area tumbling down.

But upon closer examination, current home prices around St. Paul aren’t quite at 2006 levels, although we’ve certainly made plenty of progress since the height of the downturn. Some St. Paul neighborhoods, specifically Hamline-Midway and West Seventh, have no doubt seen much stronger gains in recent months than others, but overall, the current median price of $215,167 is still just off the median price around this time in 2006, which was just under $234,000.

But as steadily job and economic growth continues to sweep the Twin Cities, there’s a realistic chance we could finally reach pre-recession home price levels next year, even despite mortgage rates climbing above 4% since 2015.